The Lost Kingdom
by The Wondering Writer
Summary: Mikan never really knew what to do when she was hiding under the shadow of her sister. Being the useless waste of space her family thinks she is. When they go to another world and Mikan finally breaks free. If the entire world she grew to love was ending will she find herself along the way? Or reopen old scars? #1
1. Chapter 1:  Extraterrestrial

_**The Lost Kingdom**_

**By Hikari Love Arrival**

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><p><em>You're so hypnotizing <em>

_Could you be the devil?_

_ Could you be an angel?_

-ET Katy Perry

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: <strong>I do not own Gakuen Alice,ET by Katy Perry or any of the paintings listed in this fic. **EDITED VERSION NOT NEW CHAPTER**

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><p><strong>Chapter 1: Extraterresstrial<strong>

There used to be large fields of flowers and trees. We used to have a small cosy cottage on a hill that looked over the entire village. It had a great view of the moon and stars at night. All the people there would welcome people with open arms and-.

_**BEEP, BEEP, BEEP**_

I looked out the window snapping out of my thoughts and was instantly greeted by cars fighting their way through and trying to get passed traffic looking like a hoard of sheep. The buildings were so tall and if you looked higher in the sky, you could see all of the smoke that was there. It was so far from my old village where it was all so peaceful and serene, while here it looked like it was always rush hour and was so loud. I could already feel my self getting a _major_ headache.

"Miki, Miki, Miki, isn't this exciting we get to go live in a big city at Grandpa's it's like a dream come true," sighed the girl sitting next to me. I looked over at her to see her sighing dreamily.

"I know isn't it exciting Mikan?" the woman in the driver's seat said.

I snapped, "How can you two say that it's so loud here would someone remind me why we moved her in the first place I mean come on, Grandma, Grandpa doesn't even care about us w-"

"Mikan Reanne Sakura! Don't you dare say anything about that time it was a long time and you better lower your tone with me young lady," she sighed, "why can't you be more like your sister."

I looked away in annoyance and pulled my iPod out of my leather jacket and stuffed the ear phones in my ear. Leaning my head back and closing my eyes I tried my best to push the anger I was feeling towards my Grandmother down from comparing me with my sister.

I sighed.

Aoi Sakura. My twin sister. Well, you could say we were different in so many ways it was like we weren't even related. She was one of those typical nice cheerleaders who always ruled the school. I was the typical loser who would rather stay home and watch TV then want to do anything with another human being for that matter. She actually cared about what she wore or how she looked. I was the fashion disaster that would rather stay comfy then break my feet in heels that I could barely even walk in. And apart from that we did not even look alike in anyway. She had luscious black hair and red yes that sparkled when excited. I, on the other hand had huge boring brown eyes you see everywhere and brunette hair I usually kept in a messy bun or a normal ponytail.

But despite all of that she was my twin sister.

"Mikan, we are here. Look!"

I opened my eyes and leaned to look over my sister shoulder and I gasped.

In front of us was a giant mansion. That looked like that came right out of one of my books. There was a giant fountain in front of the mansion that was surrounded by a circle of grass. The mansion had that Old English feel to it with the giant windows and black panels to it as well. The bricks were all yellow and that just gave in to the Old English feel even more.

Before I knew it we were in front of the house and getting out of the car to look at the house in awe. Aoi right by my side doing the exact same.

"Well you like the house, I see," an amused voice said breaking us out of our thoughts.

We looked up to see the giant black doors open and an old man with nearly white to black hair wearing a yellow polo shirt and beige jeans. He was wearing a big smile ear to ear that showed his spidery wrinkle on his face. And there he was Hiro Sakura. Looking as if he hadn't aged a bit since the last time we saw him when we were children. Always laughing. Always joking around. Always having fun.

Except he hates me.

I have no idea why but he always said that I would bring trouble and no good. I've always wondered why but let's just say that my Grandfather and I have never gotten along. Another reason why I refused to come to this hell hole.

"Aoi! You have grown prettier over the years haven't you?" He pulled her back from the hug and was now observing her up and down, nodding approvingly.

He went over to Grandma and kissed both her hands," looking beautiful as always Izzy."Grandmother blushed and smiled sweetly at him in return.

I couldn't keep the grin off my face. _'They are _so_ in love.' _Then he turned around to look at me. He grimaced. I frowned and glared at him. '_In love or not some things just never change.' _

Breaking the obvious stare down between my Grandfather and me, Aoi said "Hey, Why don't we just bring our luggage inside now okay?" She said nervously from behind us but still pretty much succeeded in breaking the heated stare down between my grandfather and me. I grabbed my small knapsack, while the chauffer brought our bags to our rooms.

As soon as we walked into the extravagant house we were welcomed by a pretty long hallway leading up to an open space with doors of rooms on other sides. There was a giant spiral stair case in the back and quite honestly I would have to say it _was_ pretty much taken out from a typical olden day rich people house in a movie. There was red and yellow everywhere and antiques that probably cost a million.

We went up the stair case and the butlers led us to our rooms while grandpa and grandma went to talk in the study. I went and followed the butler up the stairs and into the third floor while Aoi's was on the second floor. The third floor looked a little mysterious and dark but also giving in a lot of light from the windows. The butler told me to go to the end of the hall and to the right to see my room. He also said that my entire luggage was moved to my room already and he left.

_Trust him to give me the creepy place._

I walked down the hall and trying to calm down my breathing. Normally, I was never even scared of walking down dark places before. Normally, I was never even scared of walking down dark places before or large hallways but there was something about this place that gave me the absolute creeps. So to keep myself from freaking out I started to look at the photos around the hall way.

Most of them were antique photos like _The Starry Night, The Absinthe Thinker or Women with a Guitar. _Obviously even though Grandfather may hate me enough to put me in a dark hallway for a room, I guess he does have great taste in paintings.

By the time the paintings stopped coming pretty much hallway down the hallway I turned right and my room was right in front of me.

_God, even the door had an antique touch to it._

The door was white and had squares and rectangles with a golden embroidery around it. I snapped out of my thoughts and pushed the door open.

It was an empty room with cream walls a bed and a dresser. Much to my disappointment I saw my luggage by my bed and instantly ran over to the bed set and jumped on the bed. Letting myself take in the smell of newly fresh cushions and comforters. Then I saw a small letter on one of my suit cases. I lift myself up on my elbows and took the letter.

_Mikan,_

_I know what you are thinking there is nothing in you room but your grandmother thought you would paint and design the place by yourself. Buy anything you want._

_Grandpa._

Wow.

Who knew he would actually listen to someone. Well it was my grandmother so I guess he _has _to listen to her.

I grinned. As I said _so in love._

I turned over on my bed to face the ceiling and I looked over the room then I got so many ideas in my head on how to decorate the place that I lunged at my luggage and dragged it on my bed. I searched threw my clothes and finally found my sketchbook. I sketched the drawing of my room from the angle of where the door would be as soon as I walked in. I decided I liked the idea of maybe painting some pictures for my room. I might as well since we were going to be stuck here for a whole _stupid_ year. Then I remembered the reason we were here.

I groaned.

My grandmother was starting a new business here in Tokyo. We owned a small coffee shop in my village but it was pretty famous. Though she could have easily just did that from back home and just come here whenever needed but I also think she wants to spend some time with Grandfather.

_Grandfather._

I never understood why he hated me. Actually I knew exactly why, I was not perfect. A.K.A I am not Aoi. It is pretty stupid; I mean c'mon it is pretty obvious he does not know the girl as well as I does. Though, I have to say that she gives off a perfect aura. She had the perfect grades, she was the head cheerleader back in my town meaning she was the worst thing ever in the whole world; popular.

_Okay, there are totally a lot of great things about me, sure. God, Mikan don't bring yourself down. Stop comparing yourself to her. You were used to it forever know living with the old perfectionist isn't going to hurt for a year._

I looked out the balcony door. It was still the afternoon and a lot of time to spare. I decided to kill some time and go around the backyard or if you can even call that a backyard. I walked down the dreary hall way down the stairs and the house to find the back door.

I whistled.

Hello, there were like acres of huge green grass and heck, they even had the old family farm with horses and everything. Wow, Grandpa has been busy for the past five years.

My gaze paused on the forest I saw a shadow by the trees. I squinted my eyes and distinctly got the shape of a person leaning on one of the trees. I was always told that curiosity killed the cat but for some reason I had felt the need to check this out.

I walked closer towards the forest. As soon as I walked close to the forest my feet were promptly frozen to my place on the ground.

My eyes widened.

The person that was leaning on the tree turned their head toward me and came out from the darkness. I revealed a girl that was probably the same age as me. She was wearing combat boots with a black skirt and black shirt to go with it. She had black boy cut hair and a pale complexion that could have been compared to a ghosts.

But what freaked me out the most was that this girl had dark amethyst eyes that held nothing.

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

No emotion at all.

_Who was this person?_

She was absolutely stoic, as she walked over to me and held out her hand. I looked at it and looked at her in wonder.

"Hi, I am Hotaru Imai and I am a Neroganger looking for Hiro Sakura."

I guess curiosity did kill the cat a little bit.

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><p><strong>Note: <strong>Hi! yes i know i keep on changing my mind a lot lately and well i thought of this way long ago and you know still finalizing it but just do not kill me. And yes i have deleted _A Love Fairytale_ but you know this is better and i know what it going to happen. Don't kill me.

So how was the song choice for this chapter? Started off too fast? This was my first fic so critisism is apprecited. New chapter next week thank you.

**Review!**

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><p><em>Hikari Love Arrival<em>


	2. Chapter 2: Secrets

_**The Lost Kingdom**_

_**By My Hopeless Love Arrival**_

_**Chapter 2**_

_Tell me what you want to hear_  
><em>Something that will light those years<em>  
><em>Sick of all the insincere<em>  
><em>So I'm gonna give all my secrets away<em>

_This time, don't need another perfect lie_  
><em>Don't care if critics ever jump in line<em>  
><em>I'm gonna give all my secrets away<em>

_Secrets by One Republic_

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><p>The whole world seemed to stop and I had no idea why.<p>

Everything was normal the wind was hitting my back; there was a faint sound of birds chirping. But for some reason this girls eyes held me in place and I felt dread in the pit of my stomach. Like something was off.

Then it hit me what did she say she was?

A Neroganger.

What was that? For some reason it sounded awfully familiar. Like an old memory coming back to me. The memory was fuzzy like it happened a long time ago. But just as quickly as it came it left as well. I was frustrated I strained myself into remembering. A girl on the carpet drawing a person, then writing in big letters on the top of the pa-.

Someone coughed.

I broke out of my thoughts of me and was greeted by annoyed amethyst eyes. I realized she still had her hand out. "I'm not going to be doing this forever," the equally annoyed voice from the said person. I was fully awake from my world. And I took her hand.

_Ice cold._

I almost wanted to rip my hand away from her. But I pushed away the urge to do so and introduced myself. "Mikan Sakura, I am his granddaughter, just come with me."

We walked towards the house and I briefly wondered why on earth I was so hung up on her or why I felt like something was not right. Like something big was going to happen.

I broke my thoughts once we entered the house. What freaked me out was that Grandfather was already there. He stood there like he knew she was coming. Coming down was Grandma with Aoi by her side.

Aoi looked just as confused like she had no idea what was going on. I couldn't say that I she was the only one confused. But I cleared my throat and turned to my Grandfather. "She said she was looking for you." He looked behind me to look at Hotaru and furrowed his eyes like this worried him. Grandma came to hold my Grandfather sleeve. Normally, that just would make me grin but there was such a tense atmosphere it actually scared the hell out of me.

I blinked when Hotaru came from behind me. She looked at grandfather and grandmother as if trying to read them and analyzing them, also storing them in her mind, somewhere. "It is time to bring the princess home," was all she said monotonously. Then it was dead silent.

_Princess?_

All I could think was, it was happening. The dreams of this happening were coming true. Then it all clicked in at once. I had this dream saying exactly this. But what creeped me out was that the exact words from my dream were what they were saying and happening. And also if my memory is correct than Aoi was going to speak up right about ….

"Princess? Grandma, Grandpa, what the hell is going on?"

_Bingo. Word for word._

_The hell?_

I looked at him already knowing what he was going to say, but that did not make it any less unbelievable. He closed his eyes and exhaled; he opened his and said looking right at her with blank eyes, "Aoi she is talking about you. You are the princess."

_Knowing did not make the impact better._

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><p>Soon enough we were sitting on the porch, with tea and cookies like a typical tea party you would think with the bright background, under normal situations. That was the thing this was not normal in any way shape of form. If you look closely you would see that there was one girl that looked under shock with hands clenched and eyes wide. Three people on the other side of the table looking down at their cups.<p>

I took a deep breath and held my sister's tightly clenched fist. She relaxed a little and unclenched the fist and squeezed my hand. She looked at me with fearful, sad eyes. Like just like me, she was wishing this was not happening. But I force the feeling down and gave an encouraging smile her way.

She looked like she needed that and lifted her head up, "I want answers, what are you talking about me being a Princess?"

Hotaru, of course, was probably the only one who had the guts to answer. "I thought your grandparents were supposed to tell you on your sixteenth birthday. But I am going to be straight with about whom I am," she took a deep breath and breathed out, "I am a Neroganger."

"You cannot expect us to know what that is." Three heads turned my way as if realizing I was still here. I bit my lip nervously and said, "I'm just curious as to what is going on, as well."

"Your right I should be more detailed with tis since you _two_ are obviously very new at this. A Neroganger is like a person who can talk to the dead and communicate with non-living things."

Aoi squeezed my hand. "Why am I here than does that mean that I am not human, too? Does that mean my real parents are alive, and is Mikan my real sibling-?"

For the first time Grandpa spoke up. "Hold on, we know you are curious, but we will explain everything to you. We did not want to tell you on sixteenth birthday, but it will be very crazy to go up to you and tell you, you were a princess." He took a breath and continued. "I am a Warlock; we can mainly do stuff like fight and use battle skills. You will find that many boys from where we come from are Warlocks."

"I am a Necromancer; I can shape shift into pretty much anything," my grandmother said.

Then I realized there was something missing. "Wait, where do you guys come from? And what is Aoi then?"

"We come from Aliceanna, it is a magical land. The history of Aliceanna is very complicated and I am sure you will learn along the way. As for what Aoi is she is a Farlionigon. It is actually not very surprising since your Great-Grandmother was also a Farlionigon" Grandmother said soothingly.

Penny seemed to not wonder a thing about this and ask "What are my parent's names?"

"Ioran and Kaoru Hyuuga the King and Queen of Darkinia".

I looked at her ad saw the little light of hope in her eyes and I was suddenly jealous of her all over again. She is going to get to see her parents. She is going to have a proper family with her Royal parents. But honestly if you ask me if I was surprised when I found out my sister was a princess. I'd lie. To say I was surprised would be big lie. I always knew she was a princess. It was like when we first saw the _Princess and the Pauper _she was the princess and I was the pauper.

I know, I know I should be happy for her and I really am but it is so typical she would get all the luck. From being a princess, not that it matters to me. But she gets everything she wants. And I knew this. In the typical sibling, not blood related, relationship we had one person will always be the spoilt lucky one, in this case it was my sister. So to put it all in short I was jealous.

I snapped out of my reverie and squeezed her and gave her an encouraging smile.

_After all she didn't know a thing about what I felt. I had to be a good sister for. Blood related or not._

I looked at Hotaru and I asked the question that I knew was on her mind right then.

"When is she leaving?"

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><p>I was currently in my sister's room helping her pack for the trip to her<em> parent's<em> _kingdom._

I still could not believe all of the stuff that happened and all of it on my first day in Tokyo.

_Unbelievable._

"And apparently I have a twin brother."

I looked at her for that. She looked the nervous happy but with the mention of her brother she looked at me with sad eyes. She walked over to me and held my hand. "You do know you could come if you want I really am going to miss you. I mean having a brother and all I can't even talk to him about my problems, like who is he, is he going to be kind and are my parents are going to even except me."

I shook my head with a smile on my face.

"Come on, Your Majesty, man up, I'm sure they will love you, they are your parents. If they took the time to send someone for you than it will be fine."

"But you won't come with me," she said desperately.

"Come on, Aoi, you already have Grandfather and Grandmother going with you."

Yep, my grandparents were going with my sister to the magical in which they were raised in. And they claim they love us equally. Well. Except for Grandfather he hates me. So in the end I was the odd one out _again_. I guess they both do.

Aoi frowned and looked gloomy.

"How can they leave you in this place alone? Like it is hardly needed for them to come, I need my sister not my Grandparents twenty four seven. They're just going to nag me. And it is going to be so lonely without you. I mean who wants to stay with a bunch of old people, plus Emily hardly looks like the type of person who would talk much."

She looked down right desperate know like a person trying to grab on to anything for comfort. And I was tempted. So tempted.

But I couldn't, I really did not want to get replaced by her twin brother. It was frustrating. So I decided to comfort her.

"I will always be there, we will keep in contact, I will be here when you need me that is definitely for sure."

She sighed, "But if anything goes wrong and I need a sister I will be running here and dragging you there by your ears."

I smiled and promised her. I then told her I had to go shopping for some stuff for my room, I told her to stay to get some rest, when I noticed the tired circles under her eyes from being so stressed out.

And I was out of my house in no time with my leather jacket on and hands stuffed in the pockets. I went to a chauffeur and asked him to take me to the closest shopping district. I was in the car and driving out when I thought I saw a strange figure by the trees. But as soon as I saw the flash the car had begun to pick speed and it flashed by.

I shook my head and mentally cursed stating up so late the night before watch horror movies. But what I could not get out of my head was the glimpse of a furry a sick yellow hand with disgusting nails that I swore I actually saw.

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><p><em>8:00 pm<em>

_Shit._

_Grandma is going to kill me._

Here I was standing beside a stop sign with a shopping cart filled with at least twenty bags. And my chauffeur was supposed to be here about a half hour ago. In the middle of closing stores, people walking by and whispering about me.

_"Look, she got abandoned," _A group of teens passed by, whispering about her. _"She probably got dumped," _They all started laughing so loudly. I had enough and turned around to look at them just to show them I was listening.  
><em><br>_They started to laugh and walk anyways. _Rude._ Normal people look away.

I decided I was not going to sit there and be laughed at. So I took my cart and went to the nearest bus station.

Fortunately the nearest bus station was nowhere near the shopping district near a place where there were apartment building and light post that kept on blinking. I sat down on the bench waiting for the chauffeur to come for me.

I closed my eyes and was actually somewhat happy that I had some time alone. I went over today's events and could not help to wish helplessly that things could have been different. I wished that maybe just maybe I could go with them, but I couldn't because I was the sore thumb in the family. The normal one there was nothing special at all about me. I am just probably below average.

I sighed.

_Rumble._

_Rumble._

_Rumble._

I snapped my eyes open. I turned my head around so fast I nearly got whip lash. There in the narrow alley was the thing I thought I saw in my Grandfathers mansion. But this time I was not concentrated on the hand, no way the only thing I could see were the ugly glowing eyes coming from the dark.

It came out of the dark and I almost fainted.

The thing was a giant.

I swear this was _so_ not my day.

It opened its mouth and said in hideous voice "I have been waiting to bet you alone, Princess."

Yeah, so not my day.

I was frozen; my feet were frozen to the ground. The giant looked like a thing straight out of _Shrek_ except Shrek did not look like he wanted to actually _eat _human beings. And I don't think Shrek had two teeth drool coming out and a big piece of wood that looked like fried chicken with spikes on them.

It approached me as it kept looked at me and said "You would make a _lovely _snack for the meantime, Princess. Actually your magic being would make an excellent lunch." With that he lunged at me and I let my instincts take over and I jumped out of the way before he could gobble me up. It was pretty bad since my right leg was now sprained and probably looks like I won't be able to use it.

_Damn._

Mr. Ugly got up and it looked pretty uglier with one of his teeth missing blood coming out of its mouth and a giant bump for a Giant on the top of his head. He looked angry. And I don't think that was going to be pretty good for me.

In the back of my mind I could see a really bright light coming from the sky. But I had no time to think about fore the giant took the Fried Chicken and started to swing it at me.

I had no idea what came over me but I all of a sudden did a back flip as if my leg was not bleeding and twisted. I landed in a kneeling position, shot my hand out and yelled "Θώρακας του φωτός."

All of a sudden the words shot out in white glowing light, and a huge Shield of glowing white light was around me. Mr. Ugly kept on swinging his Wooden Fried Chicken. But the barrier protected me.

I was shocked.

No, I was so beyond shocked there was no word for how shocked I was. Then...

_Pain._

_Leg._

_Great._

I plopped on the ground and held my ankle. I pulled up my sweatpants to see a swollen ankle and a ton of scabs from the back flip. Shit, the back flip I knew I could do those I just never would have thought of doing it at that type of situation. And the words that I said coming out of my mouth. It was like I had done that before.

It scared me I looked up to see a very stupid Mr. Ugly trying to break the Barrier. But it was not budging. The barrier I created. How the hell did I even do that it was not like I knew how. The words I remembered were definitely not English, but I knew what they meant like an instant dictionary in my brain.

_Shield of Light._

That was what they meant but how did I _do_ that?

All of a sudden a blinding flash of light came from the sky and rocketed down and landed on the street. It looked like a UFO and all I could think was _God please have mercy and let there be no Blood Sucking Aliens be alive. _

But as the doors opened four guys in armor came out. And did I mention that they were like all good looking. Just like a Prince Charming coming to my rescue. But as soon as they opened their mouths I knew they were anything but Prince Charming.

"So that is the Hereoglophis that got away."

"Yo, who is that girl? She magic or something."

"Shut up Tsubasa and let us get this over with."

"Youichi has got a point, we came here to get the Hereoglophis, so we have to help her too. Let's go."

"Tch, let's get this shit over with."

My eyes widened as the raven haired boy whipped out his sword and clanked his sword over Mr. Ugly's head. He looked a little knocked out and turned to face his opponent. The giant swung his fried chicken towards the raven haired boy. The boy dodged the blow. A silvered haired boy came and clanked a shield on the back of Mr. Ugly's head. A blonde boy ran to the raven haired one to help him. This time Mr. Ugly staggered on his feet the blue haired boy came and wrapped a blue whip around Mr. Ugly's neck and held him down. The dirty blond boy threw a boomerang and it turned into a cage.

Mr. Ugly roared and tried to break out. But it was impossible.

Then the raven haired boy turned his eyes to me. Somewhere during the battle the barrier let down, but I was not thinking about that. All I could see were the _red_ eyes.

I only knew one person who had red eyes. Then I remembered something.

He looked like Aoi.

It couldn't be.

Then he opened his mouth and said in a husky voice "Who the hell are you?"

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><p>And here I was in <em>another<em> awkward silence around a dining table with four more other people. Later when Grandmother found me, yelled at me and dragged me home, muttering a thank you to the so called _reinforcements_, she invited Aoi's look – a – like to come and meet _his _sister.

And guess who it was.

Aoi.

This day is just getting even better by the minuet.

"So you were able to call on a piece of magic and even use a rare spell and block the Hereoglpophis?" My grandfather said disbelieving.

"Yes, if when you mean by Hereoglophis you mean Mr. Ugly. Now will you tell me just _how_ I did that?"

"We still have no idea what she was said or what the spell was." My Grandmother said scared.

Grandmother and Grandfather looked at each other questionably and I knew they were not expecting this to happen.

"As far as we know there should not be _any _magical beings on earth," said Hotaru.

"I say we bring her to Aliceanna to see if she does have some powers or not," said Natsume, Aoi's brother, bored like it was the most obvious thing in the world. It made a sudden urge to strangle him even worse.

They all looked at me. I looked at Aoi to see she was pleading me with her eyes. Seeming to send me the silent '_Do you see who my brother is?' _look with the way she was moving her eyes towards him. Not that he realised.

Then before I knew it I was saying something along the lines of "I guess I could see how it works."

She smiled and I was reminded of who she was again. Farlionigon. Meaning she could possibly be Charming into doing what she wants. Then I thought could she have been doing this to me all my life.

And that thought scared me.

It hit me; I was scared of all the new secrets I was about to find on the coming world.

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><p>My Hopeless Love Arrival, I changed my name again. This just suited me more. Now I, hereby, promise not to change my name again.<p>

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><p><em>My Hopeless Love Arrival signing off.<em>


	3. Chapter 3: Forward

_**The Lost Kingdom**_

_**Chapter 3**_

_**By: My Hopeless Love Arrival  
><strong>_

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><p><em>Every step I'm taking<em>  
><em> Every move I make feels<em>  
><em> Lost with no direction<em>  
><em> My faith is shaking<em>

_ But I gotta keep trying_  
><em> Gotta keep my head held high<em>

_ There's always gonna be another mountain_  
><em> I'm always gonna wanna make it move<em>  
><em> Always gonna be a uphill battle<em>  
><em> Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose<em>

_ Ain't about how fast I get there_  
><em> Ain't about what's waiting on the other side<em>  
><em> It's the climb<em>

_The Climb by Miley Cyrus_

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><p><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> Disclaimed

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><p>I woke up to screaming.<p>

Don't ask me how it happened it just did. It came from my room. The room really had nothing in it since we moved yesterday and suddenly I found out everyone I knew was not human.

"You are such a jerk!" I turned to the scene in front of me. What the hell was going on?

There was no words to explain how shocked I was. I mean they just met each other yesterday? And they are already fighting. Oh, who am I talking about the twins. Aoi and Natsume. Yeah I know right.

Yeah, I was kind of hoping everything was a dream. Obviously not.

"Mikan do you know what this guy said?" Aoi screamed to my face.

I just ran my hand through my hair and asked her the foretold question. "Well I just wanted to know about my parents. So I went to the only person is probably close to my parents. And when I asked do you know what he said to me?"

When is she going to stop making me answer her questions with questions? But I repeated her question again.

"Stop waking me up so early in the morning go away," she said in the most can-you-believe-him way.

I just sighed. You would think that after so many years of finally learning not to wake me up in the morning too she would be able to handle it.

Then the other raven haired boy answered, " Why are we even bringing this to her?"

The two of us just looked at him.

I don't know about Aoi but his words hit me hard. I remembered she was not my actual twin sister. So he was right. What right did I have on helping them with their problems.

I didn't say anything after. I mean what can I say. Plus I didn't have to, Aoi did that for me.

"Because I am used to going to her with my problems. No questions." She said it so seriously, it scared me a little. Though it was really reassuring. That was when I realized it did not matter where I fit in she would always be my sister.

And then for the first time in a long time I smiled. One true smile.

* * *

><p>I frowned.<p>

I tapped my foot on the ground impatiently.

She was late as usual.

Honestly.

Sometimes I wondered why she was such a girly – girl. I mean come on. How long does it take to get ready. Then again I couldn't say anything really since I was apparently a fashion disaster.

Right now we were going to the magical world of Aliceanne. My mind wandered back to yesterday. It felt like it happened only hours ago.

I sighed. I really need to stop doing that.

Then out came running Aoi. She had shiny raven her hair tied up nicely. She was wearing a white skirt, a emerald top, with a brown jeans jacket to top it all off. To anyone else she would look completely perfect. With people looking at her in admiration for being so perfect. It hasn't happened before.

But she couldn't fool me.

I narrowed my eyes when she reached me. I looked at her and instantly knew that she was about going to whole different universe. I couldn't blame her. I was to.

I smiled at her encouragingly. She was still my sister after all.

Nothing was going to change between us.

I was going to make sure of that.

* * *

><p>I take back everything I said about us staying sisters.<p>

Two weeks.

That is how long it has been since came to the magical world of Aliceanne.

I mean two weeks is all it takes for a person to change doesn't it?

I these two weeks Aoi has been taking 'Princess lessons' to be more 'princess like'. I guess I was pretty naive when I said that they would like her for who she is. Well, they were pretty nice and crying when we got here. But when they looked over her. Apparently she wasn't princess material.

Right now I was living in the grand Palace of Darkinia with the Royale Hyuuga family. Well I was drawing there grand garden which I have to say was quite the sight. Aoi was currently at princess lessons being a prissy. And Grandmother and Grandfather well they did a really good job at ignoring me.

It was pretty relaxing to be alone.

I looked over my drawing of the garden. To any normal eye it looked perfect for me I saw the small mistakes like the proportioning of the flowers were all wrong and the light did not look proper. Like the alignment of the sun garden. No seriously they had an entire garden made like a sun.

"Your pretty good," came a husky voice from behind the tree I was leaning on.

I jumped at the sound at turned.

I narrowed my eyes at his signature smirk, "What do you want?"

He just shrugged.

I glared at him and turned back to my drawing to erase and fix the proportioning. I felt him come and sit beside me.

We just sat beside each other me drawing and him staring of in space.

I couldn't take it anymore and I peaked at him wondering what he was doing. But when I looked at him, he looked so lost. Almost a little scared even. I didn't know why though. But I hate to admit it but he as pretty good looking. He had windswept hair, a hard jaw, and pretty cool looking red eyes. His tan skin also went pretty well with the whole package. His clothes looked more like bikers which he has so that wasn't exactly surprising. I could see why girls would drool and throw themselves at his feet. But seriously it was pretty pathetic still.

Then I realized with a start how many girls would kill me for being where I am right now.

Like literally kill me.

With that pleasant thought I looked away when I realized I was staring at his face too long and got up packing up my sketchbook stuffing it in my bag in the process. At this point he was staring at me with his eyebrow raised curiously.

"Where are you going?"

I looked down at him, "I'm tired and I want to finish decorating my room so bye." At that moment as I

walked away I hoped that I didn't squeak at him.

That was when I heard him following me.

At that I turned around and faced him, "What do you want from me?"

"Why did you leave?"

"Why do you care?"

"I don't, but Aoi does."

That caught me off guard what did he mean by that? Then I realized he was jealous. "You shouldn't try to force her to like you and become like me, you should be yourself and act like her brother."

After that it was silent between us. The only sounds were the flowers and the trees that were around us. Finally he spoke up,"Aoi won't care about anything you say after this you know."

I didn't expect that.

Why would she not care about me anymore?

"She will become a princess and forget about the small things like you and care about fame and gold," he said arrogantly, with a stupid smug smile on his face.

I was silent at first and then I just walked away.

But I know.

I know deep down inside that everything he said was true.

And there was nothing I could do about it.

Cause everything already changed.

* * *

><p><em>Bang <em>

_Bang_

_Bang_

The banging just won't stop! I covered my ears with my pillow.

_Bang_

I had enough I grudgingly got up to open the door to yell at whoever had the frickin' nerve to wake me up at freakin' _1:30 _in the morning. But as I opened the door the last person I thought would be there was there.

_Grandfather._

_What is he doing here?_

"Mikan we want you in the throne room."

"Um," _What was going on here?_ "I'll change and be there in a second." He nodded and left.

I went back into my room to pick my clothes out and try to shake the bad feeling out of my stomach.

* * *

><p>It was quiet.<p>

_Way_ too quiet.

In front of me are the King and Queen of Darkinia, Ioran and Kaoru Hyuuga, Aoi's parents.

I guess you could say they are Natsume's too. But who cares about a jerk like him.

The whole crown room looked like it came straight out of Cinderella.

Well if it weren't for the fact that the King and Queen of Darkinia were looking at me like I was dead to them.

"Do you know why you were able to produce that type of magic before?" It was the King Ioran who talked.

At first I was so shocked I had no idea what he was talking about. Then I realized he was talking about the apparent weird spell I did back on Earth. "No I have no idea."

"Of course you don't know. Mikan we think that you are a Veneficus."

I couldn't breathe. What is a Veneficus? Is it something bad?

"What exactly is that?"

"It is people that can form rare sometimes even dark magic. From olden times, no one has seen one in almost two hundred million years," Grandfather answered from beside the King.

But I still couldn't breathe and I don't think I could fully understand what they were saying.

"Mikan you are the only one of your species."

What did that have to do with anything?

"The only way for you to be a Veneficus is for your parents to be one too. And since you are the only one of your kind your parents are most likely dead."

My mind is blank.

I was scared.

Why does it feel so much colder in here?

I just realised that after Aoi met her parents that maybe I had the hopes of doing the exact same thing. But now that is never going to happen.

Lost.

That was all that can explain how I was feeling.

"We want to send you away to Alice Academy of Magic so that you can learn how to use your magic and control it there."

"_Control it_," I said, did they mean that I am dangerous.

"You magic can be dangerous," Wow am I good at guessing bad news, "You need to learn how to use your magic so that you won't hurt anyone, "Grandmother replied.

I couldn't believe this. They didn't care a thing about _me_. They were more concerned about themselves.

Grandfather said, "The Hyuuga's have offered to pay for it all themselves. You will have a happy life there."

"_You will have a happy life there."_

Those words were ringing in my mind.

I knew what they were doing.

All of a sudden I felt like crying.

I looked at all of them in their night gowns smiling kindly down at me from that grand podium. But I could see the happy glint in their eyes. They were finally getting rid of me. I had to ask though.

"Are you disowning me?"

Their smiles disappeared and were replaced with shock in each and every one of their eyes.

I couldn't help the bitter laugh that made its way out my mouth.

"You guys couldn't possibly be that stupid to think that I would actually not know what you are talking about?" They were silent Grandmother looked like she wanted to apologize. For some reason so did Grandfather. But I wasn't going to let that happen. I did not want them to think they had to forgive me for something that was bound to happen.

I looked at the King and Queen with intimidating eyes that they cowered at. It was my turn to question them. I wasn't going to leave here without making them feel guilty.

"Do you know your daughter or do you just know what you want her to be?" I saw the scared confusion in their eyes.

"I don't know why you let her go in the first place but if you want her back just so you have a princess to show this damn world to, you are probably the worst parents I have ever seen." They looked guilt, I smiled mentally to myself I hit a nerve.

"Everyone has been telling me that she will forget about me and be _so_ into being a princess. That's true but the only person who will probably keep her from being miserable is going to be be Natsume. Not the two pathetic parents who could never see the good in their child." The sore remorse in their eyes made me know my guilt tripping them worked.

"Aoi will understand that you are busy as King and Queen but spending time and trying to know her will never hurt." They looked like they knew what to do but were still sad.

I turned to Grandmother and Grandfather abruptly. I was glad to leave them. I handled their abuse way too much.

They winced under my gaze.

"Grandfather you left Grandmother for money." I was being abruptly honest. No holding back. I saw the anger in his eyes and could tell he wanted to say something to deny it. But that was the truth there was nothing he could say about it.

"Grandmother you tried and made it seem you cared about both me and Aoi equally. Let's be honest and say you only cared about Aoi. Constantly comparing me to her and leaving me out of everything you two do."

In the smallest whisper she said "You wouldn't have liked what we did."

I saw red.

They didn't know me at all.

Pathetic.

"No, but if you knew anything about me you would realize that I cared so much more about being with you. It wouldn't matter what we were doing." She looked remorseful. Good. Regret it.

"Grandfather I am not Aoi. I never will be perfect. Neither will Aoi," He looked like he wanted to deny the fact that Aoi wasn't perfect," Nobody is we all make mistakes and feel things that get us confused. A perfect person will always know what to do and be able to keep their cool. Nobody can do that. Aoi can't either and neither can I."

They all knew what I was saying was true.

They knew that though they were trying to do what was best for Aoi they never knew her or me enough to say they knew what was best for her.

With that plaguing their mind I said the last thing on my mind.

"And I am happy to leave."

I turned my back to them and left the dark dreary throne room. I was never turning back.

* * *

><p>"You are not leaving."<p>

"Yes I am."

"No, I won't let you."

"I am leaving."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes, I am, Aoi."

"No you are not I need you here. I can't…You can't…I can't…You are not leaving end of discussion."

I was so not prepared for this.

Aoi and I were currently in my room. I was packing and she was yelling at me not to leave. But even she was telling me not leave there was something in her voice telling me she didn't care if I left or not. That she just needed me here to listen to her problems as usual.

I was tired of being used like this.

"What's wrong Aoi?"

Then she started bawling while sitting on my bed.

"Mom and Dad, I feel like they don't even want to try and get to know me more. It's like they don't care at all its sad. Their always busy with work. I get that but they don't try at all." She started to sniffle uncontrollably. "Natsume-nii so far is the only one trying to help me."

So I was obviously right about her parents not know her at all.

"It is not like how I imagined at all."

I was going to be the good sister one last time before I let her and everything go. I kneeled in front of her and wiped her tears away.

"Nothing will ever happen the way you want it to."

"But I feel like they are trying to change me."

"Aoi they want what is best for you. They will love you just the way you are. But you have to realize that not everything you do will end up the way you want." She looked at me trying to figure out my words.

This was it. "Plus, you will need them all when I am gone."

"What? I told you are not leaving."

She said it with so much conviction that I almost said that I wasn't going to leave. But I snapped out of it before I could even think of saying anything. Then I realised what she did.

"_As for what Aoi is a Farlionigon."_

_She charm spoke me._

"Aoi," I stood up and looked down at her angrily. How could she do that to me? I voiced out my thoughts.

She stood up and looked at me angrily.

_What? _

_She _was looking at _me _angrily?

"What Mikan, that I tried to charm you into staying here? Why are you so surprised? I need you here and you're going to leave me! What type of sister are you?" She all but screamed in my face.

What type of sister am _I_?

I am the only one acting like the good sister.

I clenched my fist.

I've had enough.

"Get out of my room," I said through clenched teeth.

"I should leave what type of sister are you to just tell me to get out. This si my castle."

"Aoi," I yelled. "I am the bad sister! You are the bad sister you have a lot of nerve to say that I am the bad sister."

"I am the bad sister? How I brought you to this place you actually found out who you are."

"Aoi I came to this place because you were the one who begged me to stay. Because you needed a sister. What a bunch of bull. You needed someone to go crying to I would have been there. I really don't mind that. But don't use it so you only need me when your sad but ignore me the rest of the time."

She looked guilty. She knew it was true.

"I am so tired of living only for you people using me. I'm tired Aoi I need this time for myself. I need to live for myself and you need to learn to only depend on yourself."

She looked so hurt. But I needed to do this I can't take it anymore.

"Fine but you are no longer my sister."

Ouch. She can just throw away everything. Our child hood and everything just like that. It never meant anything at all then.

Then she all but glared at me and left.

I sighed and zipped up my stuff. Put all my stuff outside in the hall way waiting for the servants to come and take them in the flying car outside.

"So you're leaving."

I jumped.

There in the usual all black jeans and leather jacket was the arrogant, stupid, jerk Prince of Darkinia.

"Really you scared me."

"Sorry," he said with a touch of sarcasm.

The servants came in at that moment to take my suitcases to the car. We walked with them to the car in an awkward silence.

_God._

_This is killing me._

"You should be with Aoi,"he glanced at me from the side. "I mean you heard what we were talking about."

"And you were the one, who said _'you need to learn to only depend on yourself,'_ I am letting her do that."

I looked at him in surprise. Then I smiled, I guess there was so much more to Natsume Hyuuga than thought. "By the way this is probably the first time I saw you in a dress, Polka."

_Polka?_

"What are you talking-."

I take back everything I say.

"Pervert."

I am never going to wear sleeveless dress. Or think of polka dot bras the same ever again. Arrogant, stupid, bra peeking jerk.

"But you look good in a dress."

I looked up at him to find him smirking at me. What just happened?

"So you are leaving?"

I glanced at him and said "You heard what I said earlier. I need to be alone and live for myself for a while." I stared down the stairs towards the door in wonder. "I need to find out what I want. I can't take the whole abuse. Plus, I'm just lifting the burden off their shoulders."

He didn't reply anything. The servants were putting the suitcases in the car when we were outside. I faced him. He stuck out his hand in a handshake type of thing. I looked up at him. His eyes were still the same old cold eyes I grew used over the two weeks.

I put my hands in his rough one and almost jumped at the electric shock that went through our hands. Thank God that I didn't though. He looked like he felt it though with the way his eyes widened a little.

I couldn't stand the pressure and ended up being the way to say goodbye. "Well It was nice meeting you, Natsume."

"You too, Mikan."

I let go of his hand and walked to the car. I sat inside and thought about all the things that changed in my life by the time I got here.

The car started and the huge palace in the background started to fade. All the childhood memories of the loneliness. I knew I was making the right choice by leaving. But I still had no idea what I was going to do. And though I was sad most of the time in the past I still could not stop the tears pouring down my face.

I watched as the tears fell and dropped onto the hand that was still tingling since I left.

I'm making the right choice.

So I let out a breath and wiped the tears away. Clenched my fist to stop the tingling and looked forward.

And that was all I was going to do was look forward.

In two weeks I lost my best friend, my sister and my family.

But I was going to keep looking forward.

* * *

><p>I was fifteen then now I am eighteen.<p>

It has been three years since then and in that time I went to Alice Academy.

I still could not believe how much my life had changed since then. I am so happy.

I am happy now I know who I am. I thought all this as I remembered the past while looking in the sky.

"Mikan," said a monotone voice from behind.

I looked back at my best friend and roommate, Hotaru Imai. The Hotaru Imai that was there from all the way back then. When I was on Earth.

We were currently graduating from Alice Academy. I smiled at her, "So Hotaru we are finally graduating."

She smiled a soft, small, smile. "Well it is surprising for an idiot like you to be graduating."

"Hey come on guys lets go," screamed Permy.

I shook my head and headed to our friends, smiling.

I was going to look forward. The past is there to look back to and reminisce and remember. Not to live in.

So I will keep looking forward to what my future holds.

_But no one was prepared for the danger that was going to come_

* * *

><p><em>Authors<em> Note: I am so sorry about not updating. But it is summer break up I am sure I will update a lot more know.

* * *

><p><em>My Hopeless Love Arrival<em>


	4. Chapter 4: Not Over You

**_The Lost Kingdom_**

**_Chapter 4_**

**_By: My Hopeless Love Arrival_**

* * *

><p><em>Dreams, that's where I have to go<em>

_to see your beautiful face, anymore_

_I stare at a picture of you and listen to the radio_

_Hope, hope there's a conversation_

_where we both admit we had it good but_

_until then it's alienation, I know, that much is understood_

_And I realize_

_If you ask me how I'm doin I would say I'm doin just fine_

_I would lie and say that you're not on my mind_

_But I go out and I sit down at a table set for two_

_and finally I'm forced to face the truth_

_No matter what I say, I'm not over you_

_Not over you_

_Damn, damn girl you do it well_

_And I thought you were innocent_

_You took this heart and put it through hell_

_But still you're magnificent_

_I I'm a boomerang doesn't matter how you throw me_

_Turn around and I'm back in the game_

_Even better than the old me_

_But I'm not even close without you_

_~Not Over You by Gavin Degraw_

* * *

><p><strong>Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Alice. Or Not Over You by Gavin Degraw. Everytime We Touch by Cascada and Sway by Michael Buble.<strong>

* * *

><p>An invitation to the Kingdom of Darkinia for their Annual Ball.<p>

That was all that was needed to make Mikan Sakura's normal life that she had made out for herself go to pieces.

Why the hell was she invited to the ball of the place she was pretty much thrown out from?

There were hundreds of questions that were going through her mind but the only thing that made sense in that moment was _Oh My God, Oh My God._ What was the world coming to?

The only thing that broke me out of my "_Oh My God this can't be happening,"_ trance was the sound of one of my best friends yelling and slamming the door.

"Mikan, where do you want me to put all of your damn stuff!" screeched a muffled angry voice.

I flinched and instantly ran towards the door after hearing the loud crash.

The scene in front of me made me forget about the invitation and everything. There were boxes scattered all over the place that were full of cushions and comforters. There in the middle of the mess was a body in tiny summer shorts and a tight white tank top with a box covering her entire head.

I tried my best not to laugh when I called out to my friend, "Sumire?"

I could see her fists clenching on the sides of her body and then they abruptly came up to rip the box off of her head. The face underneath it though was not so pleasant.

Green Eyes narrowed down to a cats when they faced me (I was forcing myself not to flinch) and her permed hair was literally floating around her like she was a cat that had a bath or she looked like Medusa. Not too sure which one it is but it looks like she wants to kill me.

"Sakura," she growled at me almost menacing. I tried my best to keep myself from laughing at the ridiculous expression she had on her face especially the condition she was in. I asked like I didn't have a clue, "Yes Sumire?"

"Just because I offered to unload all your damn stuff does not mean that I am just going to sit around and do all the work myself," she huffed and finally picked herself up from the ground. The first thing she looked at to see was okay was her nails.

Sometimes she just could not believe how she was ever friends with her.

"First of all Permy, I got all of the stuff to my room thank you very much and by the way all you carried was the cushions, the comforter and that's it!" I told her as I went across the room to where she was standing to clean up the mess around her.

"You could just use your powers. Probably more useful than mine help either way," Sumire said mumbling glaring at her now broken nail. "Look I broke a nail!"

I rolled my eyes at her immaturity and sighed, "Sumire you know how I feel about using my powers," Pausing at her snort but continuing anyway, "There are a lot of things that I could do by myself but I-"

"You should make sure your damn voices don't travel down the hallway."

We both turned to the door to see my best friend and roommate outside holding the exact same invitation as mine that I had forgotten about in my room. I paled at the thought.

"I'm guessing you have the same invite as I do," Hotaru questioned.

"That makes no sense though, I thought that I was disowned why would they even want me to be a part of one of the ancient rituals in their kingdom?"

"It doesn't matter your still coming whether you like it or not. Now hurry up and unpack so we could get an actual good looking dress out of your pathetic excuse of a wardrobe," She said before walking saying she was getting some coffee.

I stared at the door with my mouth open like a fish. When Permy went out with her I swear my mouth hit the floor.

"You could helping." I huffed, "You are not answering my questions," I said loud enough for my voice to echo.

I looked around at all the boxes.

_Jerks._

* * *

><p>I didn't like shopping at all.<p>

I didn't have a lot of problems with the whole female population because I apparently couldn't find one person who didn't like to shop, it's just that I wasn't into going to thirty different stores till I drop.

It wasn't like I was as much of a freak as I was when I was on Earth. I actually knew how to dress up decently. Maybe I couldn't wear a skirt for my life but that didn't mean that I don't own thre or four.

_Okay._ Three or four skirts may be exaggerating it a bit. I own _one_ skirt not that it matters.

"Mikan would you stop staring off in space and try on this dress," Sumire screamed at me from the other side of the dressing room.

Sighing, I took the dress that she waved from the other side of the door and blindly slipped out of the one that I was wearing. I went out and waited for Hotaru and Sumire to give me the verdict of what they thought of the dress. Both of them were able to find their perfect dress the minuet they got into the shopping mall whereas mine took a whole hour to find.

And still counting…

"It's not your colour."

"Too lose around the hips, as well."

"Way too long."

"Take that off and we'll go."

Does no one really understand what I have to go through or is it just me.

Sighing with exhaustion I just went back inside to get out of the fiftieth dress that we tried on and join my friends outside. As we walked outside I couldn't help but feel the same way I did when we first came to Aliceanna.

There were tall buildings everywhere kind of what you would see in Tokyo or New York City. But in the sky you would see that were three moon looking planets that are always there in the sky. People are either flying around with bags in their hands and different creatures were casually talking with each other.

It was like this place was originated from one of those fake movie "shot" in the "future" on Earth. But this universe was Aliceanna. Aliceanna consisted of four different types of portals all of which was ruled by Royale Families. There was The Kingdom of Terra, The Kingdom of Haemal, the one I am currently in The Kingdom of Burghal and The Kingdom of Darkinia.

_Darkinia. _

_I wanted to vomit right there._

"Mikan are you okay?"

A hand was waving itself in my face.

I looked up to find Sumire looking at me worried. I smiled on her direction and said, "Yeah I'm fine, listen you guys I'm really tired I think I am going to my apartment to rest."

But obviously Sumire wouldn't take any excuses, "No way, we still need a dress for you."

I suppressed the groan that was bound to come out of my mouth. "I'm really not cut out for this type of thing at all plus I don't have that much money to buy these expensive things."

Sumire opened her mouth, probably to make a sarcastic remark only to be interrupted by Hotaru.

"Just let her go, come on lets go get you a dress."

She gave me a knowing look and dragged Sumire away threatening that if she dare bothered her she would make sure to make her life a living hell.

I sighed and walked to the escalator. I kept on walking to the front when I caught a glimpse of this plain light blue long dress.

It was in a craft shop that made their own dresses. Before I knew it I was walking in the shop.

_Ding_

The bell rang when I opened the door.

I was greeted with a lot of pink. There weren't many people inside but you could see the shadow of a person from the small set of stairs that they had leading up to probably a workplace.

On the walls there were all different types of cloths rolled up in rows. Accessories were all over the place on white tea party tables. There were even some beautiful dresses on mannequins.

I was in complete awe.

If there was some part of me that was really a girly girl I think it was showing itself in this shop.

"Hi may I help you?" said a sweet old lady voice.

I turned abruptly to find an old lady in a white shirt and most beautiful flowing printed yellow skirt ever. She walked slowly to the counter and smiled at me.

I bit my bottom lip and said, "Oh, I was just wondering if I could buy that light blue dress in the showcase."

I have no idea why I am doing this.

"That plain ol' thing? No, No, No, No a girl like you must want something more extravagant!" the old woman laughed.

"I actually want to fix that dress so if you don't mind."

The old lady raised one eyebrow and said, "What do you mean 'fix it'?"

I twitched my hands uncontrollably and said "I want to customize it for myself."

I looked up to find the old lady smiling even bigger than before with a twinkle in her eyes.

"Well it would be my pleasure to help you Miss…"

"Mikan, Mikan Sakura."

"Mrs. Anju, please come up to my workplace." She held out a hand for me. I took it albeit a little hesitant.

"Well Ms. Sakura I would have to say you have a very good sense of fashion."

I could only look at this weird old lady with a sense of surprise. And I knew instantly that this old lady and I would get along perfectly fine.

It was the nicest compliment I heard for a while.

* * *

><p>I could feel my mood lighting up as I put the finishing touches on my dress.<p>

How ironic could it be that the girl who hated going shopping and wearing anything even remotely girly would _enjoy making a dress._ But the weirdest thing of all was that I did not mind one bit.

I learned a lot from Grandma Anju, also about her. She had a husband, Narumi Anju who apparently went missing in a war from decades ago.

That was when she opened this store in memory of him. Since apparently he really liked her dresses, he even liked to wear them. I was a little weirded out at this trying to imagine a soldier wearing a dress.

Before I knew it I had the dress in a black bag with the stores name on it, "_La Belle Fille". _

"Thank you so much how much does this cost?"

I looked up from my wallet to look at her for her answer. Only to find her staring at me curiously, "You don't need to pay."

_What?_

"No way, I am so paying you. You did so much for me."

She simply smiled and took out a treasure box looking thing from the cashier drawer, she handed it to me. I only looked at her more confused. _She was giving me more stuff?_

"I want you to have this. Open it when you go home." I was about to retort, but she was already going back upstairs with a huge smile on her face. "And don't worry about the money for the dress;" she turned to look down at me from the spiral stair case, "employees get dresses for free."

* * *

><p>I opened the door to my apartment.<p>

So I had one thing that I could check off my list for the "Living On My Own" checklist. I got a job.

This has probably been the most productive afternoon I had in a while. Grandma Anju, gave me her SFS (Solar Face Service) number, to talk about the times I should work, after I come back from Darkinia. The idea of going though still made me want to puke.

I walked out of the circle like living room and down the hallway that would lead to my unsaid bedroom, pushing boxes of stuff as I went by. Once you entered the bedroom though you can tell it is the master bedroom. I placed her bag on a box and took out the dress that was covered in a protective black plastic. As I did I saw the treasure box that she gave me, I put the dress in the closet and took the treasure box out carefully.

It was a rusty golden treasure box that had strange writing on it that made no sense at all, on the top of the treasure box though you could see nice little designs like flowers. As I opened the box it started to play music.

It was a melodious sound that sounded a lot like a lullaby. Inside you could see a princess looking girl dancing with a prince; they both were dressed like it was their wedding day.

_So Cute!_

I gasped.

In front of them was the most beautiful little pendant that was surrounded by some rose petals. I picked it up and started to inspect it. The pendant was shaped like a white flower. But embroidered on the pendant was what looked like the sign for some type of emblem for a country.

_Weird, it looked really familiar._

An electric shock was going through me all of a sudden. I also doubt it was the one you get with love- in-first sight type in those sappy romance novels but the power-flowing-through-my-veins type of thing you would find in manga. It felt familiar as well like this wasn't the first time I was having this sensation.

What was going on here? I didn't realize it before but my eyes closed so that I could feel the sensations flowing in my body. Images started to flash in the back of my eye lids. There were too many images that were too blurry. I could briefly understand that there was a huge war going on. I looked around and I couldn't understand where this place was. Everything around me was a blur of people getting killed and a huge hill with a castle on top was behind me. It looked like they were trying to protect it. The image changed and I was in a middle of a huge gazebo that was surrounded by a pond.

I winced there were so many blood curdling screams around me, it was too terrifying. I want to cry. But that made no sense since I did not know any of these people.

"But you do know them."

I turned abruptly but I only got to see the outline of a girl before I was blinded by the bright light she was emitting.

"Please, wake up."

* * *

><p>"WAKE UP, MIKAN!"<p>

I screamed, as I fell on my butt on the floor.

Looking around I saw amused violet eyes and angry dark green ones as well. There was no saying how many times this had happened. But what I don't understand was when did I go to sleep?

"How long do you think you can sleep?" Sumire said still in my face may I add.

Tiredly I pushed her away from me, "Can you please tell me what the hell is going on here? And how did you get in my apartment?" I looked expectantly at Hotaru ignoring Sumire's squawk of being ignored.

"Your door was opened. Hurry up and pack up we have to go to Darkinia, idiot."

"What have you been doing since you got back home yesterday? There's nothing unpacked here!" I turned to Sumire, contemplating whether or not I should tell them about my dream and my weird encounter with the old lady. "I got myself a dress and a job so I think for me I earned myself some well-deserved sleep." I said with a yawn and stretched my arms like a cat to make point. I left them both speechless to go to my en suite washroom to take a quick shower.

When I was done I walked out of the heated bathroom opened my closet for my clothes.

Only it was empty.

I really needed to try to stop being _such_ a procrastinator.

Well desperate times call for desperate measures.

I raised my arms and let my hands droop down as I chanted the spell, "Τα αντικείμενα της ψυχής μου εσύ εξαπολύσει στο φως." As I finished the spell I felt the tingle of the light I knew was on my under my palms.

_Perfect._

At that moment I flicked my hands upward and all at once my stuff flew out of their boxes and was floating around in my apartment. As I sensed the same thing happened to the rest of my stuff in my apartment.

The tingling goose bump sensation flowed through me once again as more power filled itself in my hands. I said the next part of my spell, "Διαβάστε τις εικόνες στο μυαλό μου είναι πραγματική."

When I opened my eyes my stuff was set up exactly how I imagined it. My bed was in the corner trying not to take up too much space. On the other corner I had my study table, not that I was going to use it much. My fuzzy green rug beside my bed would complement the dark green colour I was going to put as the accent wall. The white circle chandelier hanging from the ceiling had designs that looked like snowflakes, lit up and added some sparkle to the entire room. A few of my paintings though were probably cluttered all over the apartment though.

I walked to my closet once again after I made sure everything was where I would probably want it. My closet was also filled with all of my clothes. There were a lot of things that could be said for my people I didn't have a certain type of _style_ I wanted to stick to. I just wanted to be myself.

I took out my blue skinny jeans, off shoulder black shirt that had "SWAG" in big white letters, and selected my undergarments. I changed into the clothes and headed for my dresser. I took out my brush coaming my still slightly wet hair and quickly smothered some pink cherry lip gloss. I finally opened my drawer to put it all in when I caught a glance of a really long golden chain necklace. I studied it for a while, thinking it would go perfectly with the pendant from earlier.

I walked over to the corner with the paintings, the wall on the left there are custom bookshelves and my musical box was on one of them. I take it out and hop onto my bed opening it to get the pendant and put it on my necklace making it a very pretty necklace if I do say so myself.

"MIKAN HURRY UP," I heard Sumire's voice from my window.

"Okay I'm coming."

"Stop yelling Permy you're going to make my ears bleed."

"Mikan come on or I am going to kill your best friend here."

Quickly I ran out my door to stuff my music box inside my suitcase that was by my front door. I grabbed my jacket and keys, took my suitcase and ran out before my friends could start killing each other, literally.

I was off to Darkinia, to hopefully ignore my stupid past.

Hopefully.

* * *

><p>We stepped out of the portal that was temporarily connecting the worlds together for Darkinia's famous Annual Ball.<p>

All these people were probably so excited. Being invited to the richest planet, to attend a ball with all of the richest and powerful people in Aliceanna, was probably a big honour.

But unlike these people I felt like I was going to throw up soon.

"Hey, are you okay, you look like your about to barf," Sumire's voice oh so wisely pointed out.

"Shut up, Permy."

"Look, I highly doubt they will come to greet us," she said as she was obviously trying to catch the eye of a really cute guy in front of us.

Just when I was feeling a little better that I might still be able to ignore them, "They are coming my family insists on greeting me back after our lengthy separation." Thanks Hotaru really.

They were the ones who really only knew what happened, between me and the Hyuuga family. Not that it would really matter for a while. Hotaru only knew because she was a part of the Royale family and has attended these things every year. So has Sumire, her father is a much respected councilman throughout the four worlds. It also has been a tradition that has been passed down to generation to generation. The three of us were also roommates in Alice Academy. So it was bound for them to know.

Alice Academy.

There was not much you could say about that school. There were tons of magic schools in the worlds but Alice Academy is known to be the toughest most prestigious school there was. Just graduating from there would be and honour to so many people, since most drop out, or don't pass. We were the lucky ones.

In about a week we were going to start school again going back to Alice Academy U.

I couldn't dwell on it much when the sounds of horns started to play. It meant the Royals were coming. I froze as everyone went quiet to stare in awe behind us. Slowly I turned as well to see the flying carriage come down in front of us. The royal horn started to play again but was interrupted by a scream and a large blur aiming itself at Hotaru. Hotaru thinking quickly whipped out her gun and…

**BAKA BAKA BAKA BAKA**

Of course I expected but I could see and hear Sumire freaking out beside me. Obviously she has never personally met the Royal family. Wouldn't surprise me, Hotaru and her weren't very close. It was a wonder how they lived in the same dorm.

"Imai what the hell are you doing?" Sumire screeched at her. Hotaru of course ignored her, so did I frankly. We both watched the ground and saw the `blur' come back to life. The Duchess of Darkinia got up and looked at Hotaru with tears in her eyes. She looked a little like a child that just got kicked in the face. But I guess in this case it was shot in the face.

Hotaru curtly said, "Mother."

A whiny voice came out of the most respected Duchess and you could see the rest of our audience slightly shocked to see the Duchess in this state and bowed, "Hotaru you are _so_ mean."

"Honey, could you please put yourself together," a kind man's voice said.

Out came a handsome man with raven hair and black eyes. If you looked closely you could see some gray hair coming and a few wrinkles on his face.

He smiled kindly at his daughter, "Hello Hotaru it is nice to see you return again." He soundly hugged his daughter, Hotaru hugging him a little as well.

The Duchess smiled slightly but pouted like a five year old, "She's my daughter too I want a hug as well." The Dutch laughed and let go of his daughter to let her mother hug her extra tight. Lightly I could hear Sumire whisper in my ear, "What a weird family. Where does Imai come from?" At this I laughed.

I saw the Dutch turn his head this way. And smiled at me, "Mikan, it has been a while since we have seen you." He came over and hugged me lightly as I laughed slightly, "Hotaru won't let me eat any good food anymore." At this he looked at me quizzing, "What does that have to do with not coming over?"

"Every time I come here Aunty feeds me too much and Hotaru will kill me if I become too fat that I can't be shown in public." He laughed a nice hearty laugh at this.

I heard a laugh from the Duchess mouth as she turned to me to give me a hug as well. "Well either it is nice to have you back for a while; usually we have to go to Burghal to see you." I smiled kindly at her.

Both the Dutch and Duchess turned to look at Sumire, peculiarly wondering who she is. After seeing my nod Sumire introduced herself, "I am Sumire Shouda, Imai and I used to be roommates along with Mikan."

The Dutch made a "aaahhh" noise and said curtly, "Hotaru told as a lot of nice things about you. And would you mind telling your father he owes me 20 drachme."

Aunty slapped his arm slightly and said, "Stop that Honey, It is a pleasure to meet you, Sumire. We should head back to the castle the Ball will be tonight."

Uncle turned to the crowd of onlookers and said nicely, "Please come to your carriages and on behalf of the Royal family I would like to Welcome you to Darkinia."

As we all made our way to the carriages with Hotaru, Sumire and I going in the carriage with Uncle and Aunty, I could hear Sumire whispering to Hotaru, "You said nice things, like what about me."

"Shut up."

I smiled maybe they could get along.

* * *

><p><em>What was going to happen when I got into the Ball?<em>

_Will they see me and ignore me?_

_If they talk to me how ill I react to that?_

I was in full out freak out moment. Sumire was also not helping by constantly puling at my hair and not letting me see my reflection.

I had a robe on that covered my obvious naked body underneath it. But I didn`t really care since it was just Sumire and Hotaru in my room.

But I was still so nervous I could feel the butterflies in my stomach and my heart pounding in my ears tearing at my chest. What would they think? Why was I invited? I know Hotaru wouldn't have invited me because she would just tell me not waste money on a card. It couldn't have been her parents since they would never have had the permission from the main family to do that. But why would they invite me, they all hate me?

"Stop thinking too much you're going to get brain damage with that idiot brain of yours."

I glared at the girl in front of me. But I could not help but gasp after at how beautiful she looked. Her usual straight boy cut hair was a little puffy and softly curled reaching her ears. Her makeup was a little dark with light brown eye shadow and eyeliner that complimented her eyes with red lipstick staining her lips. Her dress was beautiful though, it was dark violet darker than her eyes with spaghetti straps. It's tight around her chest area and under her chest was a nice design then the dress flowed out to her ankles. With that she topped it off with a necklace and bangles. She looked like a true Royal, and I told her so. Which she smiled a small, small smile at me.

Then frowned and said, "Are you sure you want to do this? I could just say that you weren't feeling well."

I contemplated this but my thoughts were interrupted when Sumire finally yelled, "Done!"

I was quickly turned around and I saw a stranger in the mirror. My hair was pinned up with a pretty diamond sparkly clip. My hair that I died blonde was hanging from the back of my head was curled, with two strands of blonde on either side of my head curled against my face. My bangs were still covering my forehead reaching my eyes but looked really soft to the touch. My face though I had light make up on and with light pink eye shadow a little Smokey, a tiny bit of blush on cheeks and I could taste my favorite cherry lip gloss on my lips. I looked at Sumire in surprise.

She just smiled at me through the mirror. I studied her and could say that she looked just as beautiful as Hotaru. She had light make with almost the same make up as Hotaru but light lipstick and a little blush on her cheeks. Her hair was permed as usual but her bangs were pinned up in a Cleopatra style. Her dress was also beautiful and made her eyes pop out a lot. The dress was yellow and strapless but had two diamond strings wrapped around her neck. It reached her knees and silver linings from her waist going down fading just a little at the end of her dress.

Sumire touched my shoulder and said, "You go show those asses that you are fine without them." I turned to look at Hotaru smiling at me softly. I smiled at them both, "You two are the best friends a girl can ask for."

Laughing Sumire said, "Yeah, Yeah, tell us that once you get through this night. Now go change, stupid."

Still smiling I went to my room to change into my dress.

Maybe I can make it through this night after all.

* * *

><p>I couldn't do this.<p>

I was standing in front of the huge Darkinia castle and was feeling like the smallest girl there. Too many ad memories were coming back to me. As we walked in we were lead to the back of the staircase to be introduced to the most important people in all of Aliceanna. It was even more nerve wracking when the people who disowned you were in the crowd as well.

I could feel the sweat on my hands, as I clenched my cloak that covered my dress.

Before I knew it I was at the top. Sumire and Hotaru did not have to be introduced since they were at one of these Balls before and everyone knew them. There were two guys in front of me as I closed my eyes to calm my nerves and went over the advice Hotaru and Sumire gave me.

"_Introduce yourself as that you're from Burghal."_

"_Go to the top stage then take off the cloak."_

"_By the way you need to tell me where you got your dress from it is gorgeous."_

"_Steady your breath and walk down calmly."_

"_Don't you dare trip."_

"_Also don't forget to smile, idiot"_

"Miss."

Abruptly I opened my eyes to look at the announcer person.

He looked at me and rolled his eyes, "Your introduction."

"Oh, um Mikan Sakura from the Kingdom of Burghal."

I walked onto stage slightly wincing from the spotlight. I soundly took off my cloak I was about toliterally run down the stairs.

"_Don't you dare run down the stairs, stupid. Let the vultures take a good look at your face. Let them remember your face." _

So I took a step back and let them see my face after five seconds of silence I began to panic. Did they not like the dress? It was a beautiful dress; it was light blue and strapless. There was a flowery diamond design on the chest area flowing down all throughout my dress. There was a white scarf that wrapped itself around my stomach to my waist and under my chest. The rest of the scarf flowed out the back curling slightly. The front part of it stopped right at my knees and was long at the back. It was topped off with the necklace; it reached the middle of my stomach. Oh what the hell.

I walked down the stairs with the same smile and left the podium. I heard people clapping from the bottom of the stairs also the cameras clicking and felt nervous. I felt energy flowing from the necklace all of a sudden and felt like I could take on this entire crowd. I was about three step away from the bottom of the stairs and this blinding light could finally come off of me.

When I tripped.

_Almost._

I was waiting for the ground to hit me when I felt strong arms wrap around my waist. I looked up to see no one had seen my fall. I looked up to see the face of my savior but couldn't really see anything. The man grabbed my other hand and escorted me down the stairs.

But as I got to the bottom of the stairs and the light came off my I looked up to my savior and had a heart attack.

Natsume Hyuuga.

The Prince.

Aoi's twin brother.

My face must have been good because he smirked at me and let go of me to stand on my own.

"You really are the clumsiest girl I know and you decide to where heels what type of idiot are you?"

I glared at him. "Why did you help me?"

"That would be sad don't you think? Going through all the trouble to help you redeem yourself and then you trip all over yourself," He said in that stupid haughty voice of his.

I could feel my jaw drop to the floor, before I was about to scream out at him. "Nice little show, Hyuuga, would you please elaborate yourself of trying to make it look like your dating each other."

I turned around to find Hotaru and Sumire behind me. Sumire was doing a grin smirk thing while Hotaru was impassive and cold as usual but still looked highly amused.

"Well Imai that is none of your business anyway." I could tell she was going to make another smart comment when he interrupted again, "Matsudaira is coming this way I would hurry up and run if I were you."

At that Hotaru soundly glared at him, looking behind her sure enough seeing a light brown silhouette, running yelling "_Cool Blue Sky." _People looked at him like he was and idiot and with that Hotaru bolted herself out of there as fast as she could.

But I could not even think of that there was still too much bothering me, I looked at Sumire, "Dating?"

She smirked at the both of us, "Mr. Arrogance here doesn't escort anyone, what do you think that people are thinking now."

I turned to look at the indifferent boy beside me to scream in his face. But the announcements guy came out to announce that everyone should head to the throne room.

The giant door to the side of the room finally opened and people started to make their way to the ballroom. I could no longer see Sumire seeing that she was taken in with the crowd. And I was about to trip.

_Again._

An arm shot out and grabbed my waist. I could feel a body forcefully pressed on me from behind and lips on my ear, "I got you, you should change those shoes, but I got you," said Natsume in that husky voice.

This was way weird. What type of person acts so close to a person when they didn't see each other for years? _Why was he being so nice?_ I thought as he brought me to the throne room. I looked forward not daring to look at him. His hands were still tingling on my skin from before now though it felt like electricity was flowing through me again.

I was so focused on the electricity that I didn't see him leading me to the table right in front of the Royal family.

_Oh Shit._

I could feel the panic just bubble in my stomach. I looked at Natsume but he was already looking at me, I could see the message in his eyes. _"You got this, don't worry." _At that second it felt like I knew him, much longer than two weeks. This was really familiar.

The panic settled and I felt warmth when he left me to sit next to his father.

I dragged my chair out and sat down, I was facing my old family and they were all staring at me.

Especially Aoi.

But they weren't my family anymore and they couldn't hurt me.

So I stared right back at them straightening my back to look more like a lady. I was not that scared little girl anymore. I studied them all. My old Grandfather and Grandmother, Mr. Hyuuga and Mrs. Hyuuga, looked like they didn't age at all. Not that I knew their age before. But I figured that they were at least one hundred. I moved over to the King and Queen of Darkinia and could see that they were aging the tiniest bit, with a little bit of gray in their hair. I moved to Natsume who was beside his father and I could feel myself blushing when I took in his simple black coat and piercing red eyes that softened when they caught me staring. He wasn't wearing a tie like the rest of the men though. When he found me studying him though he had the nerve to smirk at me which I glared at him lightly. I moved to look at the Queens side.

Aoi.

She had grown up a lot and looked stunning in her dress that was the same colour as her eyes. The dress she wore had one strap on her left shoulder and a slit was on the side of her dress, she had layers three layers each an inch shorter than the other. Her hair was longer to a little bit pass her shoulders. All of her hair though was tied to the side of her head and curled. With some straight hair on the other side of her face which makes it look a lot more natural. Her makeup was really well done she was wearing light brownish green eye shadow with black eyeliner and red lipstick.

She looked like a princess. And still had that happy sparkle in her eyes, I ignored it though.

On both sides of them was extended family and friends like Hotaru's.

When I realised I was being rude staring at them for too long I, acknowledged them by smiling politely in their direction.

They hid their surprise very well though. Natsume and Hotaru were the only one smirking. I could see the look in Natsume's eyes, "_Told ya you could do it." _I was so busy staring I didn't feel the random people around me sit down. I looked at the people around me. They were talking about business and obviously didn't care much for me. Though I could feel a lot of people around me glancing at me slightly or more like staring, I wondered why they didn't look away after the glance I sent them.

_Ting Ting Ting Ting._

King Ioran was standing and waiting for people to listen to his opening speech. The whole ball quieted down at once anticipating the King's speech. He put down the spoon and raised his glass even higher. Finally he cleared his throat. "I would like to thank everyone today for coming on behalf of the Hyuuga Family. There is a lot of amazing people in this room who more than anything deserve this toast. But we all must keep what is important no matter how much we earn at the end of the year. I remembered just know a girl once implied a few years back that we should never expect a person to be someone else we should appreciate them for who they were and spend time with them no matter how busy we get." At that I could not help but catch my breath a little when I saw him glance at me, "Let us imply that tonight and forever. Cheers."

Everyone around us picked up their glass and yelled "Cheers." But I was too shocked to even reach for my glass. After a few more Cheers for some reason still going around as the air nymphs brought in food really fast almost like magically appearing I silently lifted up my glass and raised it to them smiling.

Silently I thought to myself, _Cheers indeed._

* * *

><p>The food was simply amazing and after a while people started to move around with them talking to people about business and pretty much anything under the sky. Sumire and Hotaru came to sit by me with their food. Hotaru making fun of Sumire for eating way too many carbs while Sumire agreed with her, but nonetheless kept on eating her food. I could only laugh at them.<p>

Briefly I could feel the tense atmosphere between the Royal family and I dissipate as we got used to the other actually being there.

We still didn't talk to each other though, which I was perfectly fine with. But I was looking for Natsume who was nowhere to be found all of a sudden. But I was interrupted with my eye search when someone tapped me on the shoulder.

I jumped and turned to look at the person to see Aoi.

What the hell was going on here?

She smiled slightly at me. "Hello."

"Hello."

"May, I sit down here?" She asked pointing at the seat beside me. I turned to look only to find that Hotaru and Sumire had left the table.

_Traitors._

A little flustered I tried to play it cool, "Uh, yeah s-sure," So much for playing it cool. Aoi smiled politely.

"So how are you?"

"I'm doing fine thank you. How about you?"

"Fine, thank you."

_We were so formal it was really awkward._

After about five seconds of awkward silence, she finally spoke, "Grandmother and Grandfather really missed you after, you left."

I snorted at that, she whipped her head from the place she was looking at on the table to look at me. "I really doubt it was them that missed me."

She widened her eyes when she realized I understood the meaning over words. But I just smiled slightly at her. She finally got over it and smiled a little soft reminiscing smile.

Softly she said, "You know you changed a lot."

I raised my eyebrows at this and tilted my head in wonder.

"You have a sparkle in your eyes you never had in their before," with that she got up leaving but stopped as I waited for her to say something else. She turned slightly saying, "Nice hair."

As she walked away I could feel myself shaking my head while smiling. We were never going to be the same as before but in a deep level we still understood each other. I thought about the day I died my hair.

I was really depressed about everything when I first entered Alice Academy. So one day I decided I was done so I got Hotaru and Sumire to drive me out to a salon place where a werewolf coloured about two inches of my hair blonde and also a few highlights blonde in the front as well. But the point of it was I was moving on from the person I was in the past and that was why I coloured my hair, to symbolize just that.

After that the announcement guy came again, "The ball is now open in the backyard."

From the throne room there was a glass pane opening to the backyard, where you could see the dance floor that was set up.

I watched with amusement as majority of the teenagers and young adults rushed to get their party on. I was highly amused when I saw Sumire pushing through and the first one on the dance floor as well as a brunette boy who was trying to dance with her from behind. I could already see the migraine that Hotaru was getting from the music when she sat down at the bar with a Bloody Mary.

I walked to the "Ball" as the DJ started to play Let Me Love you by Ne-Yo. Heading over to the bar, I set myself next to Hotaru and order a beer. She looked at me from the corner of her eyes then went back to scanning the crowd. "How was your talk?"

Know she was talking about Aoi I took a sip of my beer and said, "Interesting."

"Hmmmm, I'm going to stop that idiot from doing anything stupid."

I narrowed my eyes as she _actually_ went to do something nice.

"Didn't know you would drink a beer."

I turned to my right and finally found Natsume.

_That girl thinks she is so subtle._

"It has been around three years so I think you don't know me as well as you would like to think."

He smirked, "Really, I could say the same to you."

"I didn't ever claim that I knew you in the first place."

After that we went on bickering for a while until I suggested the weirdest thing ever, "Let's play 20 Questions then."

He looked at me like I was and idiot, "Really, 20 Questions."

"Yes we know nothing about each other so we are playing 20 Questions."

"Hn."

"You are so weird I'll go first," I didn't have to think about it at all. "Why did you invite me here today?"

He looked at me with an indescribable expression. _What was he thinking? _ After a while he leaned his head closer to mine, "You will know soon I promise you that. But for now I can't answer that. There are bad things that are going to happen soon."

I was about to retort saying that was not a proper answer when he asked me something unexpectedly, "Will you dance with me?"

As I looked into his eyes I realized that I couldn't hear the music at all until now. They probably went through like five songs.

I couldn't help but say. "Yes."

Natsume smirked at me and took my hand the electricity flowed through his fingers tightened around mine. He could feel it too.

As we reached the middle of dance floor he put one and on my waist and mine rested on his shoulder. A tango started to play and just like that we were moving to it like we had done this a million times before.

It was too familiar.

_When marimba rhythms start to play_

_Dance with me, make me sway_

_Like a lazy ocean hugs the shore_

We were doing a tango. It was like my body was moving by itself against him.

_Like a flower bending in the breeze_

_Bend with me, sway with ease_

_When we dance you have a way with me_

_Stay with me, sway with me._

As I turned my back to him and put my hand on the back of his head with his on my waist he finally said, "It's your turn to ask me a question."I bent down on my knees and he was holding my hands over may he as he picked me up and turned me back around with my leg around his waist.

"Why are you acting like this when we just knew each other for two weeks?"

_Other dancers may be on the floor_

_Dear, but my eyes will see only you_

_Only you have the magic technique_

_When we sway I go weak_

_I can hear the sounds of violins_

_Long before it begins_

_Make me thrill as only you know how_

_Sway me smooth, sway me now._

He rolled my upper body and uncurled me holding one of my hands as the other went flying out then rolling me back into him as he grabbed the flying hand and dipping me. I could feel his lips lightly on my neck. I can feel him move his lips there as he answered my question, "After all of this do you really think we only knew each other for two weeks and then some."

I was brought back up and his eyes pierced through me, "Ask me another question."

_Other dancers may be on the floor_

_Dear, but my eyes will see only you_

_Only you have the magic technique_

_When we sway I go weak_

_I can hear the sounds of violins_

_Long before it begins_

_Make me thrill as only you know how_

_Sway me smooth, sway me now_

_When marimba rhythms start to play_

_Dance with me, make me sway_

_Like a lazy ocean hugs the shore_

_Hold me close, sway me more_

I was turned around again with my right leg sticking out and me bending and leaning on the other. He brought his hand to my knee sliding it up my thigh until my waist and turned me around. We were so close I could almost feel my lips on his, "Why are we doing this?"

I looked into eyes and knew I finally asked the right question, his eyes were so warm to me it was impossible for me to think he wasn't.

_When marimba rhythms start to play  
>Dance with me, make me sway<br>Like a lazy ocean hugs the shore  
>Hold me close, sway me more<em>

_Like a flower bending in the breeze_  
><em>Bend with me, sway with ease<em>  
><em>When we dance you have a way with me<em>  
><em>Stay with me, sway with me<em>

_When marimbas start to play_  
><em>Hold me close, make me sway<em>  
><em>Like an ocean hugs the shore<em>  
><em>Hold me close, sway me more<em>

"Because we know each other that well."

That was all he said as we circled each other and my feet start to go close to him again. He picked up both my thighs and wrapped it around his waist.

_Like a flower bending in the breeze_

_Bend with me, sway with ease_

_When we dance you have a way with me_

_Stay with me, sway with me._

We ended our little show with me jumping up with my legs straight, getting off his waist and him dipping once again.

Clapping was heard from all around us but I could only see his eyes and him slowly lifting me. I was breathing heavily as I untangled myself from him, turning to the crowd a tried to play it cool by bowing like we meant to have that little show.

After ten seconds of the two of us standing there awkwardly and him refusing to let go of my hand a slow song came on. People started to go in with partners dancing slowly.

_I still hear your voice, when you sleep next to me.  
>I still feel your touch in my dreams.<br>Forgive me my weakness, but I don't know why  
>Without you it's hard to survive.<em>

I felt Natsume pull me back in with his hands on my waist. Automatically mine wrapped itself around his neck and leaned my head on his shoulder.

_Cause everytime we touch, I get this feeling.  
>And everytime we kiss I swear I could fly.<em>

I lifted my head off his shoulder and looked into his eyes again. I could suddenly see different images in his eyes.

I was seeing us we were leaning on a sakura tree.

_Can't you feel my heart beat fast, I want this to last.  
>Need you by my side.<br>'Cause everytime we touch, I feel the static._

I am leaning on his back and laughing. But I had a permanent blush on my face from the familiar static.

"Why art thou so good?"

Natsume smirks on my neck wrapping his arms around my waist as he goes back to kissing my neck. "Kissing thou the right places."

I blush and slap him on the thigh. He tightens his arms even more making me gasp in surprise and happiness. "Shall I explore and let thou experience the feel more."

At this point I was beat red and moved my arm to knead him in the stomach extra hard.

_And everytime we kiss, I reach for the sky.  
>Can't you hear my heart beat so...<br>I can't let you go.  
>Want you in my life.<em>

_Your arms are my castle, your heart is my sky._  
><em>They wipe away tears that I cry.<em>  
><em>The good and the bad times, we've been through them all.<em>  
><em>You make me rise when I fall.<em>

"I love you."

"I love you, too. Why?"

Natsume took a deep breath and said something that will ruin the peaceful moment they were in, "I am going to war."

I stood on my knees and turned to face him abruptly, caressing his face I said, "No."

"I have to go I am only a commoner it was bound for _this day _to come," He said as he pushed my hands away from him.

_'Cause everytime we touch, I get this feeling.  
>And everytime we kiss I swear I could fly.<br>Can't you feel my heart beat fast, I want this to last.  
>Need you by my side.<br>'Cause everytime we touch, I feel the static.  
>And everytime we kiss, I reach for the sky.<br>Can't you hear my heart beat so...  
>I can't let you go.<br>Want you in my life._

"Then I will come with you."

"Your father will never allow it. We have to stop this sneaking out and it has to stop now." Natsume said this to me with a cold expression and I felt my heart break, slowly.

"I hate you."

_'Cause everytime we touch, I get this feeling.  
>And everytime we kiss I swear I could fly.<br>Can't you feel my heart beat fast, I want this to last.  
>Need you by my side.<em>

The song ended and I broke out of my trance because it seemed like the only thing I could do.

* * *

><p><em>My Hopeless Love Arrival<em>


End file.
